Former White House national security adviser John Bolton said Monday that he is “prepared to testify” if he is subpoenaed by the Senate in its impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, a surprise statement that bolstered Democrats in their push for new witnesses. Bolton, who left the White House in September, said that he has weighed the issues of executive privilege and that after “careful consideration and study” decided that he would comply with any Senate subpoena. “If the Senate issues a subpoena for my testimony, I am prepared to testify,” he said in a statement.

Four years after President Donald Trump drove the rules of politics over a cliff to win the Republican presidential nomination and ultimately the White House, Democrats will go through their own version of the same test. In less than a month, Democratic voters will begin the formal process of sifting through a historically large field of candidates. The options include progressives who have inspired energy — and strong opposition — by rejecting traditional party politics and pushing for fundamental changes to America’s political, social and economic systems. Voters could pick the oldest nominee in the party’s history — or the youngest. Ironies abound at the outset of the Democratic primary. The oldest candidate at 78, Vermont Sen.

The Department of Homeland Security is agreeing to share citizenship information with the U.S. Census Bureau as part of President Donald Trump’s order to collect data on who is a citizen following the Supreme Court’s rejection of a citizenship question on the 2020 Census form. Trump’s order is being challenged in federal court, but meanwhile the Department of Homeland Security two weeks ago announced the agreement in a report. It said the agency would share administrative records to help the Census Bureau determine the number of citizens and non-citizens in the U.S., as well as the number of immigrants in the U.S. illegally. Information to be shared includes personally identifiable data, the Homeland Security document says.

President Donald Trump insists that Iranian cultural sites are fair game for the U.S. military, dismissing concerns within his own administration that doing so could constitute a war crime under international law. He also warned Iraq that he would levy punishing sanctions if it expelled American troops in retaliation for a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad that killed a top Iranian official. But Congress is pushing back, in what’s expected to be a pivotal week as lawmakers return from a holiday recess. On Monday, two top Senate Democrats called on Trump to immediately declassify the administration’s reasoning for the strike on the Iranian official, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, saying there is “no legitimate justification” for keeping the information from the public.

NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea announced at a press conference today that the NYPD will begin to track hate crimes in Compstat, their recording method for major index crimes. This move comes after a 20% increase in hate crimes in 2019, of which the majority targeted Jewish New Yorkers. Councilman Chaim Deutsch, who Chairs the NYC Council’s Jewish Caucus, drafted legislation requiring the NYPD to make this change in their hate crimes reporting. He recently met with the NYPD’s chief legal counsel Oleg Chernayvsky, to push for hate crimes to be reported in Compstat. “Compstat has proven to aid in reducing crime, so I think it’s important that we include hate crimes in these metrics.

Global stock markets took another hit Monday while oil and gold prices surged in response to the escalating tensions in the Middle East following the U.S. killing of Iran’s top general. The death of Qassem Soleimani in a U.S. drone strike has heightened geopolitical risks for financial markets, including concerns about potential disruptions to the global oil supply. The U.S. has reinforced its presence in the Middle East in preparation for reprisals from Iran, which has vowed revenge. Iraq, meanwhile, has called for the expulsion of American troops from its territory. The moves in financial markets illustrated the concerns of investors. In time of volatility, traders often seek the sanctuary of assets like gold and steer clear of those that are considered risky, such as stocks.

The US military informed its counterparts in Baghdad on Monday it was preparing for “movement out of Iraq,” a day after the Iraqi parliament urged the government to oust foreign troops. The head of the US military’s Task Force Iraq, Brigadier General William Seely, sent a letter to the head of Iraq’s joint operations command, a copy of which is attached. The letter said forces from the US-led coalition in Iraq would “be repositioning forces over the course of the coming days and weeks to prepare for onward movement.” “In order to conduct this task, Coalition Forces are required to take certain measures to ensure that the movement out of Iraq is conducted in a safe and efficient manner,” said the letter, dated Monday.

The coffin containing the dead body of Iran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani, was transported to Tehran on a passenger plane in a special tribute flight which played footage of him on its screens. A video taken from inside Mahan Air’s Airbus A300-603R shows five coffins taking up whole rows of seats between passengers, instead of being put in the cargo hold. Passengers can be seen watching footage of Soleimani which is playing in memorial of him on the in-flight TV screens. Millions of Iranians are partaking in the funeral in Tehran on Monday. See the video below taken on the plane: MID-FLIGHT HESPED Watch and enjoy the mourning of a man who funded the deaths of hundreds of Jews through Iran’s proxies Hamas and Hezbollah.

A delegation of Iranian Jews, including the Rav of Tehran, was among the millions of Iranians filling the streets of Tehran on Monday for the funeral of slain General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a US airstrike last week, Israeli news sites reported on Monday. One of the members of the Jewish community in Tehran, in an exclusive conversation with B’Chadrei Chareidim, said: “Many Jews participated in the funeral. We went to comfort the general’s family. The Rav of Tehran, Rav Yehudah Grami, also went to comfort [the family]. An important delegation [of Jews] joined him.” A Yisrael Hayom report said that a delegation of Jews along with leaders of other minority religions visited Soleimani’s family home on Sunday to comfort the family.

Today’s Unity rally was created to show Jewish solidarity, to bring Americans together for a common cause – the fight against anti-Semitism. The need for the event is obvious: visibly Jewish people in the New York metropolitan area are attacked for their religious identity on a near daily basis, sometimes resulting in death, רח”ל. Americans must unite to help destroy the bane of our society. Americans should march together to show our commitment to Religious Freedom. Our community has a diverse spectrum of political beliefs. The progressive Jew is no less Jewish than the conservative one and vice versa. Political views do not define us. Although we have different opinions about some very important issues, we all agree that attacking orthodox Jews for their religious identity is wrong.